Occasionally it is necessary to restrain a person, especially one or more appendages such as the hands, in order for protection of the person or for insuring the security of another person. Handcuffs used by law enforcement agents is a well known appendage restraint device for the protection of the agents. Other similar restraint devices are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,854,138 and 5,398,383, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein. Military personnel also utilize appendage restraint devices for their protection when detaining persons of interest, especially when operating in foreign countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
Several safety concerns arise both for the person restrained and the person doing the restraining. In the context of law enforcement and military use, appendage restraint devices must be manually operated by the law enforcement agent or military personnel (hereinafter “Agent”) in restraining an individual (hereinafter “Suspect”). This often requires that the Agent commit one or both hands to the task of restraining the Suspect and possibly requiring that the Agent shoulder a weapon or make some other security compromise. Such a compromise becomes of greater concern when there are more than one Suspect to be restrained, especially when there is only one Agent.
A appendage restraint device of the prior art is disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,169 to Plymale, which disclosure is hereby incorporated by reference herein. In this disclosure, a base member is attachable to the surface of a police vehicle or any other stationary surface, and includes a plurality of arm members defining wrist openings for restraining the wrists of a criminal suspect while a search is performed. Tangs are included in the openings to make it more difficult for a criminal suspect to withdraw his hands without injuring his hands on the resistant tangs.
Unfortunately, the restraint devices of these patents have several disadvantages. For example, none of the restraints devices shown in these patents include the ability to initiate the restraining function by the Agent remotely; each requires that some security compromise be made by Agent, either in requiring the use of both hands of the Agent in restraining a Suspect and/or in requiring that the Agent come within arms-length to properly restrain, and insure restraint of, a Suspect.
With particular regard to the safety of the Suspect, the appendage restraint device of Plymale does not appear to include any safeguards for the safety of the Suspect, especially in view of the possibility that the policy vehicle, to which the Suspect is secured, could move or undergo an impact from another vehicle. Obviously, this would cause severe injury to the Suspect. The Suspect also readily may injure his hands by forcibly pulling against the tangs, especially if the Suspect is irrational or under the influence of a drug or alcohol, irrespective of whether the vehicle moves.
In view of the foregoing, it is clear that a need continues to exist for improvements in appendage restraint devices. This, and other needs, are addressed by one or more aspects of the present invention.